Spending the night at an Amtrak station

[TylerP42]

I've only fallen asleep in Metro lounges. Other than that, I'm either awoken by foot traffic, or once in DC's station, I was awoken by a Police officer who advised me not to sleep there.

I think I heard about Chicago juggling the idea of a hotel in the station itself, but I don't know much more than that.

 

[Train2104]

Philadelphia 30th Street (the Amtrak portion, not the SEPTA portion) is open overnight...my Megabus was late and I missed the last SEPTA of the night, had to wait there until the first one at 4:30am.

NYP is open all night too (the NJT portion is closed)

Who says the Septa portion isn't open 24/7?

When I was there that night I remember the SEPTA section being gated off. Though that may have changed in the 3 years since, or my memory muddled thanks to the late hour.

Oh pooh. Penn Station has a large enclosed attended well lit seating area for Amtrak PAX right off the main concourse. You can sit there for as long as you want. I would estimate 200-300 seats or so. See photo. https://www.flickr.com/photos/13200817@N06/4379173101/

When I was waiting for that 66 the lack of ventilation in that area made it unbearable. After spending an hour in there I decided to spend the rest in the main concourse.

 

[pianocat]

Spokane terminal is open 24 hours, but I don't recommend hanging out there when the station is unmanned. One time I had to be dropped off early for #8 , think 6p.m. Daughter walked into the station with me , saw the high volume of vagrants, and insisted that I get a nearby hotel til closer to boarding time at 1:20 a.m. Certainly wasn't a safe place for me as a single female traveler. YMMV though. Now I always book a hotel, even though I only spend a few hours there.

 

[Long Train Runnin']

Denver has a very expensive hotel on the upper floors.

Besides NYP, I am sure there are several stations "open-all-night"....Newark, NJ comes to mind, and probably several others in the NEC. The ticket office and other station services might not be open, but the waiting room is.

Anywhere that long-haul trains make regular nocturnal station stops usually have stations open....

Newark closes between 12AM to 5AM IIRC.

ETA: Even if it is open all night its not a place you would want to spend a night.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

Technically it is possible to spend the night at the Norman OK station as it is across the tracks from a homeless handout place and they end up lining the fence along the tracks at night to sleep, some pitching tents (which are quickly removed by police). Fortunately this facility is about to be moved to a more isolated location, restoring the dignity around the station area.

 

[ScouseAndy]

I arrive in NY Pen on the 67 and due out on the Maple Leaf the next morning, as I was on a rail pass and didnt have my ticket yet for the next leg initially they wouldnt let me in the waiitng room at NY but on explaining my predicitment and showing my rail pass I was quickly allowed in and was able to get very comfy using my backpack as a foot rest and got a good 4 hours sleep uninterupted upto around 6pm when Amtrak Police came round and woke everyone up due to an unattended bag.

​Coming from the UK and growing up during the troubles I was amazed at the lack of urgency and lax response Amtrak Police took regarding this unattended bag as they allowed us all to remain in the waiting room whilst a K9 dog unit was called to check it out. In the UK we'd have closed the whole station down and had bomb disposal unit called to carry out a controlled explosion no matter how busy the station was. But then we are more clued up to not leave unattended baggage lying around at airports or train stations due to our longer history with the NI troubles in fear of getting our underwear blown up

(Sorry to take the thread off topic)

 

[railiner]

Denver has a very expensive hotel on the upper floors.

Besides NYP, I am sure there are several stations "open-all-night"....Newark, NJ comes to mind, and probably several others in the NEC. The ticket office and other station services might not be open, but the waiting room is.

Anywhere that long-haul trains make regular nocturnal station stops usually have stations open....

Newark closes between 12AM to 5AM IIRC.

ETA: Even if it is open all night its not a place you would want to spend a night.

Amtrak, NJT, and PATH all have trains during the early morning hours, so the waiting room and platforms are open...even though the ticket office/baggage room may be closed. Greyhound also has some 'owl' schedules calling there, but they just pick up and drop off at their curbside location, while their ticket office is closed from 10PM to 6AM.

 

[Chessie]

How about Denver? Anyone knows?

Say if I finish up a ski trip in Vail or Aspen and drive to Denver overnight to catch the CZ westbound scheduled to arrive at 7:15am, when is the earliest will I be allowed in?

I can see there is only one train each way and chances are both will be late from time to time.

 

[CCC1007]

Isn't there a hotel in the Denver station?

 

[tp49]

Yep, you will have to vacate the Station after the Starlight rolls North! ( it's usually Late!)

The Jail is close by,but the Vagabond Motel across the Street is the place to spend the night!

This area of Sacramento is mostly a Ghost Town after Midnight, not a place you want to hang out in.!(sorry Kirk and tp49)

Can't say I disagree.

 

[railiner]

Isn't there a hotel in the Denver station?

There is , as I mentioned earlier. I kind of doubt if that very upscale hotel would allow Amtrak passengers to "crash" in their lobby chairs overnite. As far as the Amtrak waiting room...not sure if they stay open all night, or not.

In the past, before the reconstruction of DUT, the station was locked down overnight, except when a train was very late.

Also not sure if the rest of the station (the RTD bus and rail area), stays open all night.

 

[jis]

If I was returning from a rented car trip and had to hang out somewhere overnight in the Denver area, I would return the car at the airport, get a cheap hotel with a free airport shuttle for overnight and then take the RTD express train from the airport to Union Station at a suitable time to catch the Amtrak train the next day.

Alternatively drop the car at some location close to an RTD station and get a room at possibly an even cheaper hotel by an RTD station for overnight. Somehow I have grown out of the fascination with spending nights at big city stations with not much railroad action to watch.

OTOH, if I were to get a chance to spend a night at a station with dozens and dozens of passenger and freight trains passing by, I'd gladly spread out a sleeping bag on the platform and occasionally doze as the action unfolds. Brings back wonderful memories of doing that many decades back at a station called Dehri On Sone on the busy Delhi - Kolkata trunk line. It was quite memorable. I wonder if there are any such opportunities in the US. Have considered doing so at the Folkston Funnel.

 

[fairviewroad]

Have considered doing so at the Folkstone Funnel.

Another good place for that would be the Rochelle Railroad Park in Illinois. It's open 24 hours a day with a covered shelter. Features the intersection of two doubletrack mainlines, albeit with no scheduled passenger service.

 

[jis]

Have considered doing so at the Folkstone Funnel.

Another good place for that would be the Rochelle Railroad Park in Illinois. It's open 24 hours a day with a covered shelter. Features the intersection of two doubletrack mainlines, albeit with no scheduled passenger service.

Indeed! My first thought was on Flkston because it is about four hours driving distance from where I live. Might be something worth doing on the way to or on the way back from South Carolina for watching the Solar Eclipse next year.

 

[Seaboard92]

I would not do it in Folkston for safety concerns Jis. There tends to be a lot of petty crime and drug deals happening at the platform now

 

[jis]

I would not do it in Folkston for safety concerns Jis. There tends to be a lot of petty crime and drug deals happening at the platform now

Sigh...

 

[keelhauled]

Have considered doing so at the Folkstone Funnel.

Another good place for that would be the Rochelle Railroad Park in Illinois. It's open 24 hours a day with a covered shelter. Features the intersection of two doubletrack mainlines, albeit with no scheduled passenger service.

I have family in that part of Illinois and try to visit Rochelle whenever I'm out that way. It's a very enjoyable place to spend part of a day.

 

[KmH]

Here ya go:

A staycation

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/offbeat/a-man-forged-31-boarding-passes-spent-18-days-at-the-airport/ar-BBwuEJX?li=BBnb4R7&ocid=mailsignout

 

[Chessie]

If I was returning from a rented car trip and had to hang out somewhere overnight in the Denver area, I would return the car at the airport, get a cheap hotel with a free airport shuttle for overnight and then take the RTD express train from the airport to Union Station at a suitable time to catch the Amtrak train the next day.

Alternatively drop the car at some location close to an RTD station and get a room at possibly an even cheaper hotel by an RTD station for overnight. Somehow I have grown out of the fascination with spending nights at big city stations with not much railroad action to watch.

OTOH, if I were to get a chance to spend a night at a station with dozens and dozens of passenger and freight trains passing by, I'd gladly spread out a sleeping bag on the platform and occasionally doze as the action unfolds. Brings back wonderful memories of doing that many decades back at a station called Dehri On Sone on the busy Delhi - Kolkata trunk line. It was quite memorable. I wonder if there are any such opportunities in the US. Have considered doing so at the Folkston Funnel.

Thank you for the suggestions. The Amtrak website says Denver Union station opens at 5:30am. A little late to our liking but it is what it is. As long as we shower before leaving the ski resort we should be clean enough for the night. We are at an age that we don't mind at all roughing it a little bit to save time, money and hassle but I am sure that will change with years.

 

[Gulfwind2]

I think you'd have to be truly desperate or out of your mind to want to spend a night at Newark Penn Station. I have once spent quite a bit of a night there having arrived by a late Cardinal and missed the last NJT westbound to Metropark. Finally got on the 67. Phew! Not a very pleasant experience.

I had a nearly identical experience once at NY Penn station. It was a Friday night and I had a long layover connecting the Maple Leaf to "The Crazy Train" 67, which seems to board some nutty folks in the middle of the night. The blaring volume of the onboard announcements and the fact that the coach aisle lights are rarely dimmed (They had fortunately been turned off in BC where I was sitting) do little to ease the moods of the agitated passengers. I couldn't check my bags since the baggage department closed up shop for the night at the very moment of my arrival, and I didn't feel like paying to leave my luggage across the street at a hotel at midnight only to return at 3am to get set for the train's arrival.

So I sat in Penn Station where NJT would drop off loads of drunken party revelers who would often make awkward attempts to start conversations with me before their friends would signal them in the direction of their next drunken adventure. The only public bathroom in Penn Station was the biggest disgrace I have ever seen in the context of bathroom cleanliness. Every single imaginable form of excrement was present in the never-flushed-once-since-Guliani urinals, the floor looked like more of a landfill, and the smell was something you might expect from a community ravaged by the Bubonic Plague. The sporadic flow of drunk folks getting off their NJT trains made the atmosphere go from dead as a doorknob to burgeoning with laughter and shenanigans instantly. Some of the NJT-riding-drunkards would approach me to ask for their pictures to be taken, and were very kind and considerate towards me. Others were the sort of obnoxious hooligans who make you understand why American tourists are despised in many major European cities. Some of the folks in the ticketed passenger waiting area engaged in a ferocious shouting match over which direction the plug-in fans should face. Now that my ramble about my worst Penn Station overnight experience is done, if you have the chance to do so just find a place to sleep on Airbnb (they can be priced dirt-cheap if you're traveling solo) and use Uber to get around in the mean time.

 

[benale]

I had a 4:10AM NJ transit train to catch and I spent the night at Penn station. Not terrible. Well lit,secured and lots of people in the waiting area. I did spend the night at Union Station in New Orleans once,coming in a late 2 and leaving at 7AM on The crescent. I had sleepers on both trains,so an overnight didn't bother me..and we were allowed to spend the night. Couldn't see ;paying for a hotel room. This was ten years ago. Rues might have changed. I began that trip from Seattle heading to New York. I took a thruway bus about 2AM to San Diego from LA to avoid getting a hotel before catching the next days Sunset Limited. When I got to San Diego it was a bit after 4. The station opened at 5,so I just hung out by the track until they opened. and took a Surfliner back to LA later that day.

If you have a ticket for a train in DC you can overnight there. I had a 3AM regional to catch and I arrived at 11PM Security will come around and check if you have tickets.

Pittsburgh is open all night due to their Midnight arrival of 29 and their 4:45AM departure of 30. Nobody checks tickets,at least the couple of times I've been there.

Pittsburgh's station is open all night due to their Midnight departure of 29 and the 4:45AM arrival of 30 and many people have spent the night there. I'm sure there

 

[Bob Dylan]

San Antonio's Sunset Amshak ( a Poor Small copy of the Famous Grand Old Station Next Door/now an Entertainment Venue ) is open from 915pm to 700am (or until the Actual departure of the Texas Eagle) Seven Days a week.

You are allowed to stay inside the Station, but there is limited, uncomfortable seating with bright lights, poor selection vending machines and a TV playing terrible infommercials with loud sound. It also has no parking, bathrooms that seem to have not been cleaned since the Clinton Administration, and Homeless types that solicit change and use the bathrooms between being run out by the rent a cop that patrols outside.

It's actually better to wait outside on the benches by the platform or head over to the close by Alamo and Riverwalk, visit one of the mostly dead clubs close by or hangout in the 24/7 Dennys where the street people go to dine after the Riverwalk joints close.

The Daily SB #21 Texas Eagle arrives @ 930pmish/ the NB #22Departs at 7am.

The Trice Weekly Sunset Ltd. WB #1 calls at 1205am( often early)/Departs @245am and the EB #2 Arrives @ 450am/Departs @625am.

Not recommended, get a close by Hotel Room if changing trains.

 

[Philly Amtrak Fan]

Here's a picture of Cleveland's station: https://csanders429.wordpress.com/2016/09/25/middle-of-the-night-in-cleveland/

From the picture it looks a lot nicer than I remember Pittsburgh's being.

 

[jis]

I actually did a 43 to 29 transfer at PGH and then a 29 to 48 transfer at CLE on a single circle trip I did with Piotr a few years back. Cleveland was more pleasant as I recall because one could just hang out outside the building watching trains. The waiting area is more spacious inside the building too compared to PGH. Both are quite tolerable. For some reason, most American stations seem to be more cramped and cluttered and soulless than stations elsewhere even when they are less crowded. I cannot quite figure out why I get that feeling.

There are a few exceptions on the soulless part. For example I would explicitly exclude NYP, PHL, WAS, CHI and to some extent BOS from that characterization.

 

[Chessie]

I think you'd have to be truly desperate or out of your mind to want to spend a night at Newark Penn Station. I have once spent quite a bit of a night there having arrived by a late Cardinal and missed the last NJT westbound to Metropark. Finally got on the 67. Phew! Not a very pleasant experience.

I had a nearly identical experience once at NY Penn station. It was a Friday night and I had a long layover connecting the Maple Leaf to "The Crazy Train" 67, which seems to board some nutty folks in the middle of the night. The blaring volume of the onboard announcements and the fact that the coach aisle lights are rarely dimmed (They had fortunately been turned off in BC where I was sitting) do little to ease the moods of the agitated passengers. I couldn't check my bags since the baggage department closed up shop for the night at the very moment of my arrival, and I didn't feel like paying to leave my luggage across the street at a hotel at midnight only to return at 3am to get set for the train's arrival.

So I sat in Penn Station where NJT would drop off loads of drunken party revelers who would often make awkward attempts to start conversations with me before their friends would signal them in the direction of their next drunken adventure. The only public bathroom in Penn Station was the biggest disgrace I have ever seen in the context of bathroom cleanliness. Every single imaginable form of excrement was present in the never-flushed-once-since-Guliani urinals, the floor looked like more of a landfill, and the smell was something you might expect from a community ravaged by the Bubonic Plague. The sporadic flow of drunk folks getting off their NJT trains made the atmosphere go from dead as a doorknob to burgeoning with laughter and shenanigans instantly. Some of the NJT-riding-drunkards would approach me to ask for their pictures to be taken, and were very kind and considerate towards me. Others were the sort of obnoxious hooligans who make you understand why American tourists are despised in many major European cities. Some of the folks in the ticketed passenger waiting area engaged in a ferocious shouting match over which direction the plug-in fans should face. Now that my ramble about my worst Penn Station overnight experience is done, if you have the chance to do so just find a place to sleep on Airbnb (they can be priced dirt-cheap if you're traveling solo) and use Uber to get around in the mean time.

Ah, that's unfortunate. Not so much the station, but the drunks on the train. Truly a disgrace, especially to someone like me who hardly ever drinks.

I was very curious about the 66 and the 65/67 pair because the timing looks conducive to business travel between DC and Boston, which I could use from time to time. Glad to know the business class does offer some protection from such foolish frat boy behaviors.

I had a 4:10AM NJ transit train to catch and I spent the night at Penn station. Not terrible. Well lit,secured and lots of people in the waiting area. I did spend the night at Union Station in New Orleans once,coming in a late 2 and leaving at 7AM on The crescent. I had sleepers on both trains,so an overnight didn't bother me..and we were allowed to spend the night. Couldn't see ;paying for a hotel room. This was ten years ago. Rues might have changed. I began that trip from Seattle heading to New York. I took a thruway bus about 2AM to San Diego from LA to avoid getting a hotel before catching the next days Sunset Limited. When I got to San Diego it was a bit after 4. The station opened at 5,so I just hung out by the track until they opened. and took a Surfliner back to LA later that day.

If you have a ticket for a train in DC you can overnight there. I had a 3AM regional to catch and I arrived at 11PM Security will come around and check if you have tickets.

Pittsburgh is open all night due to their Midnight arrival of 29 and their 4:45AM departure of 30. Nobody checks tickets,at least the couple of times I've been there.

Pittsburgh's station is open all night due to their Midnight departure of 29 and the 4:45AM arrival of 30 and many people have spent the night there. I'm sure there

Do you mean you took an excursion to San Diego to kill some time before boarding from LAX? Good to know about WAS and PHG.

San Antonio's Sunset Amshak ( a Poor Small copy of the Famous Grand Old Station Next Door/now an Entertainment Venue ) is open from 915pm to 700am (or until the Actual departure of the Texas Eagle) Seven Days a week.

You are allowed to stay inside the Station, but there is limited, uncomfortable seating with bright lights, poor selection vending machines and a TV playing terrible infommercials with loud sound. It also has no parking, bathrooms that seem to have not been cleaned since the Clinton Administration, and Homeless types that solicit change and use the bathrooms between being run out by the rent a cop that patrols outside.

It's actually better to wait outside on the benches by the platform or head over to the close by Alamo and Riverwalk, visit one of the mostly dead clubs close by or hangout in the 24/7 Dennys where the street people go to dine after the Riverwalk joints close.

The Daily SB #21 Texas Eagle arrives @ 930pmish/ the NB #22Departs at 7am.

The Trice Weekly Sunset Ltd. WB #1 calls at 1205am( often early)/Departs @245am and the EB #2 Arrives @ 450am/Departs @625am.

Not recommended, get a close by Hotel Room if changing trains.

Good to know SAS is open. I am sure it is not first class but the connections are short enough for me to consider spending the night at the station.

Here's a picture of Cleveland's station: https://csanders429.wordpress.com/2016/09/25/middle-of-the-night-in-cleveland/

From the picture it looks a lot nicer than I remember Pittsburgh's being.

I actually did a 43 to 29 transfer at PGH and then a 29 to 48 transfer at CLE on a single circle trip I did with Piotr a few years back. Cleveland was more pleasant as I recall because one could just hang out outside the building watching trains. The waiting area is more spacious inside the building too compared to PGH. Both are quite tolerable. For some reason, most American stations seem to be more cramped and cluttered and soulless than stations elsewhere even when they are less crowded. I cannot quite figure out why I get that feeling.

There are a few exceptions on the soulless part. For example I would explicitly exclude NYP, PHL, WAS, CHI and to some extent BOS from that characterization.

Interesting connections. As I have folks in PGH and visit often, it is particularly nice to know the station is open 24 hours. Too bad CHI and LAX are not.